


Healing

by Starlight_Wren



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Healing, Oneshot, Post-Book 3: Mockingjay, Post-Mockingjay, mental health, post-rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:33:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28120203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlight_Wren/pseuds/Starlight_Wren
Summary: After the rebellion, there's nothing for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark to do but heal, so they do.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Kudos: 21





	Healing

I thought we’d never heal, but slowly, we do.

Peeta and I head back to District 12 after everything has calmed down. It’s quiet.

I cut my hair so it rests softly on my shoulders and is too short to pull into one braid because that braid symbolizes a lot of things that I don’t want to think about.

We buy a house, it’s comfortable and it’s perfect for us. 

We spend our days living softly. Peeta paints. His paintings are of things we don’t like to speak of out loud. The beach in the clock arena, the water tainted with blood after the morphling died, Mags on Finnick’s back, Johanna sitting on the beach with her ax, the skyline of the Capitol at night from on top of the training center, a television screen showing a twisted image that I don’t ask about. I think it’s a memory from when he was tortured.

While he paints, I sip tea and lean against his shoulder. Peeta eventually convinces me that having a radio in the house is a good idea. We keep it tuned to soft classical music. It keeps the silence from getting too sharp.

Sometimes, a loud noise startles me too much. A plate dropping, a particularly loud ember bursting in the fireplace. I put my hands over my ears until my heart feels less like it’s going to jump out of my throat. I can see why Annie often had her hands over her ears when we were in District 13.

We see a couple of the other Victors sometimes. We visit Annie and her son in District 4, they live in a lovely cottage by the beach. The baby looks so much like Finnick that I nearly start to cry but instead I smile. Annie has opened up a lot and I can truly see why Finnick loved her so, so much.

We visit Johanna in District 7. She has a girlfriend now and they live in a beautiful home in the forest. They raise dogs and aid in educating children about the Games. Johanna still chops wood because she liked her job back before she was reaped for the first time.

Gale doesn’t come around, nor do we visit him too often. When we do see each other, it’s nice, if not a little tense. People grow apart sometimes, and Peeta tells me that’s okay.

My mother comes around when she can. I take the photo of my sister off of the mantel and put it on my bedside table because my mother cried the first time she saw it and I don’t like to see her cry. She’s busy with work so she doesn’t come around as much as she’d like to. But when she does, Peeta makes all kinds of pastries because my mother loves them.

There are hard moments, moments in which Peeta has to grip the back of a chair, I stand quietly until his flashbacks are over, then take him into my arms. Many nights, I wake up with nightmares and Peeta is there to comfort me. The Games, the rebellion and if I’m being honest, our whole lives have messed us up, but I tell Peeta that doesn’t mean we have to stay messed up. The Games will always be a part of us, but we have to learn to move on, to heal.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this oneshot!


End file.
